Caleb has begun taking cello lessons, which has been a substantial investment both in money and in time. We (mostly) practice nightly, which can sometimes be taxing on child one doing the practising, parent one doing practice with child one, child two who wants to get involved but is mostly a distraction, and parent two, who needs to restrain child two.
We currently have a great teacher–abundantly encouraging and more patient than I could ever be–and while there are some headaches that have to do with logistics and scheduling with the school, those are of course pieces of the puzzle that take place behind the scenes. We are very much working towards cello becoming something Caleb will enjoy for many years to come.
After several years from my first job, where I needed to spend lots of time in the car for my commute, one of the highlights of my week is actually the drive to cello, about half an hour. I generally bring both kids, although occasionally Jon will take Naomi if he’s got a reason to be home early enough.
Both kids tend to be pretty good car kids, so I can’t really complain. If Naomi were more problematic, I might not even take her at all, but she’s really a fairly easy-going baby. For our weekly trips to cello lessons in particular, Naomi generally naps in the afternoon before I pick up Caleb from school, and so she’s in a good mood for the car ride over; Caleb is coming from afternoon school and will generally fall asleep in the car on the ride over. It’s a tight squeeze to get to his lesson on time, so as soon as Caleb gets home from school, he uses the washroom and gets into the car. Cello is in the trunk, snacks for both kids are waiting, hopefully Caleb doesn’t drop his snack when he falls asleep.
I’ve really come to look forward to this car ride. In fact, I, gloriously, delight in having half an hour during which no child is going to grab me with sticky hands, no phone notifications are going to buzz, no looming to-do list–or even dinner prep! Jon does dinner on cello evenings. What a joy it is to come home to a hot meal on the dinner table. I can see why men had such a hard time giving it up after getting used to it for decades.
Part of the gloriousness of this car ride is that in addition to snacks for the kids, I prepare snacks for myself. Because Caleb is usually asleep and Naomi is back facing, I can feel completely shameless eating snacks that I would normally, at the very least, not eat in front of the kids. It’s not always unhealthy, but that’s part of the fun of every week’s cello lesson drive: I prepare tea, sometimes I have chocolate, or fruit, leftover popcorn, one week I had some leftover, delicious dessert bar with nuts and chocolate chips that one of the staff had brought into the shop. Now, though, my world has completely changed.
Jon finally caved and allowed me to purchase, in bulk, bags of Covered Bridge Salt and Vinegar Chips. The real problem is that with such abundance, I’m having a hard time restraining myself, but everyone deserves a treat every once in a while. Once a week. Once a day. What is time to mere mortals?
making wild rice 